We are approaching a new year! It’s always so hard to believe, isn’t it? Now is the perfect time to renew the determination to let go of our old, destructive habits and pick up new, healing ones.
The coming of a new year is when we all like to consider the things that we feel are most important for us to improve in our lives. To me, my mental health is one of my top priorities.
If I’m not well mentally, it affects my whole life. And on the flip side, if I am in a good place mentally, it affects my whole life!
Today, we’re focusing on some New Year’s resolutions that you can easily commit to for your mental and emotional well-being, thus greatly increasing the happiness and peace you feel in your life. So much to look forward to!
Go through this list and pick just a couple of things to work on for now. Don’t overwhelm yourself. We don’t want you to feel even worse than you do now when you find that you can’t keep up with all the things, because no one can.
Start small and as you nail one resolution, pick up another one. So save this post on Pinterest to have it ready to come back to when you’re ready for a new goal!
You’ve got this!!
One-of-a-kind New Year’s resolution ideas for your mental health
Seek counseling/professional help
Do you have a hard time actually committing to going to therapy? It can be so daunting! But man, can it be so incredibly healing. Make a resolution to bite the bullet and just do it. Make the call and set up an appointment, then just see how it goes.
Build your circle
Allow yourself to be vulnerable and open up to loved ones so that you can have the support you need while facing mental illness. This is so important to feel like you have loved ones on your side and in your corner. I can help do just that right here!
Work to understand yourself/ your mental illness better
One of the great keys to a healthier lifestyle is understanding yourself as much as you can! It’ll open your eyes to the best opportunities for you and help you organize your life. Watch this video where Dr. Jordan Peterson goes more in depth about this.
I’ve found his personality test to be tremendously insightful. It will prompt you to create an account on their website so that your results are saved, and you can refer back to them whenever you want, which is so great because they give you so much information! I go back often and understand a little bit more about myself each time.
Another one of many great ways to gain a better understanding of yourself is… therapy, particularly a diagnosis. A diagnosis can actually be a blessing. Since I’ve been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I’ve learned so much about my illness and all of the surprising ways it was affecting my life. I’ve gained greater understanding about myself and why I do a lot of the things I do. If you would like to learn more about bipolar disorder, check out this article.
This new-found understanding has helped me see myself in a whole new light in a positive way. AND you will find more resources and information on ways you can cope better.
Other than therapy, there are always a crazy number of resources to take advantage of; articles online, blogs, books, support groups on social media, the personality test linked above, and I also found several of these tests to be a big *help in identifying mental illness (not an actual diagnosis) and providing ideas for treatment.
Practice self-love!
I have written an entire post about this with easy, completely manageable ways to improve your self-esteem and learn to love yourself here.
Serve others/Be kinder to people/Cultivate relationships
Make a New Year’s resolution to make a habit of serving other people and being mindful of the needs of those around you. It doesn’t have to be some grand gesture; it can just be:
- To send a kind text every week
- To compliment someone every time you go out
- Tell your friends and family how much they mean to you
- Resolve to listen to people with greater intent
- Choose one family member or friend at a time to strengthen a relationship with
- Pick one person to check in on every week/ 2 weeks/ month, however often
- What else can you think of?
Making other people feel seen, heard, and loved just feels good and is a great way to bring some genuine joy back to your life.
And that kindness comes back around. You’ll also be building a greater support system for yourself.
*Sleep!!
This one is huge. The first questions my psychiatrist would always ask at the beginning of each appointment were about how much sleep I was getting and its quality. Good sleep (or lack of) can dramatically affect your mental health.
A great New Year’s resolution to improve your mental health is to make sleep a higher priority!
Write in a journal/Video journal/Voice audio journal
Writing and/or talking to a camera or voice recording can be so therapeutic, even if you’re the only one who’s going to go back and read or listen to your entries. Just get those feelings off your chest.
Discover a new hobby that puts your mind at ease
Such as:
- Drawing or coloring
- Painting
- Reading
- Meditating
- Writing
- Walking, swimming, weight lifting, hiking, or other exercises
- Fishing
- Volunteering at an animal shelter or finding a different way to volunteer in your community
- Play an instrument (I love playing the piano to help me get my emotions out!)
What activities will help you ground yourself when you feel stressed out?
Allow yourself to invest in your health
Whether it’s time, energy, or money, my opinion is that your mental health is one of the best investments you can possibly make.
I’ve been so hesitant in the past to spend the money for counseling and other professional help, supplements, visiting a naturopath/doctor, essential oils, anything that will truly help me get in a better place emotionally. I’m thankful that my husband taught me the valuable lesson to allow myself to invest in my overall health, especially my mental health.
Learn to forgive
Forgive others. It’ll take work, sometimes a lot of it, but the weight that it’ll take off your shoulders is so freeing and give you more peace than you may know.
And forgive yourself!
You’re human too. You’re learning and growing; and that’s okay. We all make mistakes and I want you to consider how far you’ve come.
I could go on about forgiveness, but for now I’ll just tell you that since I’ve started my journey to forgiving myself of the things I’m ashamed of and others for the wrongs they’ve committed against me, I have become so much happier.
Adjust your diet and/or drink more water!
I will be writing an article soon exploring some really surprising ways that water and different foods are so important for mental health. It’ll contain really great insights that I’ve learned from professionals and have never heard of anywhere else! These ideas have been really eye opening, so be sure to subscribe to my email list (sign-up is located at the very bottom of this post on mobile devices and in the side bar to the right on a desktop!) and Pinterest to be the first to know when that post goes live!
Find a motivational podcast, blog, and/or YouTube channel to subscribe and listen to regularly
I’ve been really liking The Mindset Mentor by Rob Dial and Kast Media.
If you’ve found my blog helpful at all, I would really appreciate your support, again, by signing up for my emails and/or following me on Pinterest!
Get closer to getting yourself out of debt/ follow a budget
Eliminate a huge source of stress by becoming smarter with your money.
We can make this super simple since it can be a huge and daunting goal, so break it down into smaller, bite-size pieces! If you choose this one as your resolution, pick out one or two of these options.
- Your New Year’s resolution can simply be to make sure you’re spending less than your income every month, aiming for a net positive at the end of the year.
- Maybe commit to paying off your credit card balance on or before its due date every month so that it doesn’t even have the chance to accrue interest.
- Try not to have to finance bigger purchases. Instead of buying all of our appliances and even cars on payment plans, we try to pay cash for everything we can. If that means we have to buy a $200 washer/dryer set off of Facebook Marketplace, so be it. I know that sometimes, just biting the bullet to get the newer, quality product is better so you’re not spending more money on junk, but our cheap washer/dryer has lasted us 5 years so far and we feel that it was worth it, even though it’s loud, haha!
- Pick just one category of your budget to lower, not the whole budget at first. Like your grocery bill, electricity, switching your cell phone plan, getting rid of your garbage service by making a trip to the dump every month yourself…
- Simplify your budget if all of the categories are too much work every month. I know what all of our fixed expenses are (payments that are the same every month) so I also know about how much we have left over for everything else, then I used to have a grocery budget and the rest was all counted as miscellaneous. Even that was too much for me, so all I do now is look at our bank account on the 28th of every month, calculate our checking + savings minus any credit card balance we might have, and just compare that figure to what we had last month. If we have more this month than we did last month, then it’s a success!
Practice letting go of control
You simply can’t control everything and you can’t control other people. Nothing you do will change that. Once you learn to let go little by little, it’ll vastly reduce your stress.
Some situations we find ourselves in really just flat out suck. My mom was sick all through my teenage years and I became depressed because of it, but I found the Serenity Prayer and clung to the principle it taught me; that I can’t control this, I can only control how I endure this. It provided me with a lot of comfort.
Some of us have kids. We can drive ourselves crazy by trying to control their every move to make sure they never accidentally draw on the table, spread the glitter everywhere, throw toys all over the living room, never spill, never make too big of a mess for us to clean up, not cry or scream too much (especially while in public), blah blah blah.
They’re kids! Messes will happen and they’re going to cry and be noisy, etc. They have their own agency and make their own choices no matter what I say. But you know, we have brooms, we are actively and intentionally teaching them, practicing healthy discipline, and building relationships full of love and trust so that they can be the best version of themselves as they learn and grow.
Find a higher purpose than yourself
For me, that’s been Christianity and starting a family. There are many many purposes you can find in your life. This article is a good read on the subject.
Shower and get dressed every day
We all love a good pajama day, right? But most days, it’s so nice to feel put together and a candle-lit shower is one of my favorite ways to boost my mood.
Resolve to stand up for yourself and draw healthy boundaries
If you’re anything like me, you hate confrontation. But you are your best advocate!
Are there relationships in your life that are taxing on your mental health? Identify the behavior(s) that are triggering to you and try to be open and honest with them. It’s so hard, and sometimes you need to withdraw a little bit from toxic relationships, but it can be so worth it and keep you in a healthier state of mind.
Stop or at least decrease destructive self-medicating
Whatever it may be, if you’re finding that you’re using something to numb the pain that’s not actually making true, lasting change in your mental health, make your New Year’s resolution to work towards stopping. Use your best judgment and be honest with yourself to come up with an attainable plan to at least decrease your usage of that crutch.
Final Thoughts
My friend, you’re not alone in this. We’re all just trying to find ways to be better and make life easier and less stressful. I hope that these suggestions helped you find some new ways to take care of your mental health.
Really, whatever time of year it is, let’s always strive to work towards a better state of being. And let’s do that together.
I appreciate you!
Until next time.
